In order to stop Indonesia's dominance, this is the trick that Thailand did at APG 2025

JAKARTA - Thailand, which is hosting the ASEAN Para Games 2025, has ambitions to stop Indonesia's dominance. Tricks are also carried out even though they have to violate regulations that have an impact on Thailand winning many gold medals.

Thailand does not want to lose face when hosting the 2025 APG. Only Indonesia's dominance is strong and in the last three editions it has always managed to become the overall champion.

However, at the APG held in Thailand this year, the Indonesian National Paralympic Committee (NPC) was realistic by not setting a champion target. The NPC estimates it is difficult to curb Thailand's ambition to regain the overall champion.

However, Thailand actually violated the regulations in the APG event in order to meet that target. One of the violations committed was that several match numbers were still held even though the participants only came from Thailand.

The violation of the regulation was found by the Indonesian Chef de Mission (CdM) team after seeing the inequality of medals between Thailand and Indonesia and the other eight participating countries. The reason is that there are a series of violations of regulations that make Thailand easily win medals.

"The Indonesian contingent recorded a number of findings in the field that need to be conveyed openly, objectively, and constructively. This is part of a joint commitment to the principles of fair play, regulatory compliance, and improving the quality of disability sports competitions in the Asian region in the future," said CdM Indonesia, Reda Manthovani, Saturday, January 24, 2026.

One of the violations of regulations occurred in the para-table tennis sport. Thailand was indicated to register athletes not in accordance with their official classification.

"In the table tennis para sports, there is a Thai athlete who turns out to have an official international classification in the TT4 class. However, in its implementation, the athlete was competed in the TT5 class," he said.

"This condition is not in line with international regulations which regulate that athletes must compete according to the initial classification or the official international classification. This situation has a direct impact on Indonesian athletes who compete in TT5," Reda continued.

More severe violations of regulations occurred in the cycling and athletics categories. Several numbers were still contested even though the participants were only from Thailand. In fact, according to the applicable regulations, matches can be held if they are attended by at least four participants from at least two countries.

"In the men's individual time trial and men's road race, the matches will still be held even though only three athletes will participate and all of them come from one country, namely Thailand," said Reda.

"The same thing happened in the para-athletics branch. Some individual numbers are still being competed even though the number of participants ranges from one to three athletes and come from the same country, namely Thailand. This of course has a very big impact on the different medal collection," said Reda.

The Indonesian contingent hopes that this finding will be part of the evaluation so that the next ASEAN Para Games can be held in accordance with regulations and become an initial foothold for competing at the Asian and world levels.

"All of these records have been officially conveyed through the applicable mechanism as a form of contribution from the Indonesian contingent in maintaining the integrity of the competition, upholding sportsmanship, and encouraging improvements in the governance of the organization of multi-event sports for people with disabilities in the ASEAN region in the future," he said.

In conjunction with the attitude regarding the violation of regulations, Reda ensured that the Indonesian contingent remained 100 percent focused on achieving achievements. As evidenced, Indonesia has met the target of 82 gold. Now, Indonesia has won 101 gold medals.

"We project to win 40 additional gold medals. The main focus remains on the flagship sports, such as athletics, swimming, table tennis, chess and badminton," said Reda.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Secretary General (Wasekjen) of the National Paralympic Committee of Indonesia (NPC Indonesia), Rima Ferdianto, also regretted the violation of regulations that occurred at the 2025 APG event.

"This time we have constraints on the field, such as not standardizing accommodation, consumption and the unfairness of the host in making regulations. In fact, the basic rules in this championship, which should have athletes from two different countries, that alone is violated. Even though it is the most basic rule and it is violated, which makes this game unfair," said Rima.

However, Rima emphasized that the 2025 APG was a crucial stage for young athletes to be able to achieve success at the Asian Para Games and the Paralympics. According to him, the focus on achieving achievements must be maintained, amid Indonesia's attitude of sending a formal protest.

"The young athletes we sent here turned out to be many more than the target. That made us happy. We hope that the athletes who are prepared for regeneration, with the facilities from the Ministry of Youth and Sports and supervision from Prof. Reda, those who were still in the status of junior athletes will accelerate to become senior athletes with established achievements. Thus, they can qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics and achieve success at the 2032 Brisbane Paralympics," said Rima Ferdianto.

The same was expressed by the Deputy for Improving Sports Performance of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Surono. He appreciated the steps of CdM Reda Manthovani who had filed a formal protest, while still focusing on achieving achievements in Thailand.